Shopping

I went out yesterday to pick up a few bits and pieces of shopping that I needed. I thought I'd share my purchases with you because really the come from a rather wide spectrum of places around Boudha. 

It may not look like a very exciting shop, but really, each item is pretty special and made me happy.  

So, Starting with the Mangoes. Who can resist, especially when it's mango season. These are a more local variety of mango, not the golden Alfonso ones that get shipped off to the west, but a more rustic type who stay fairly green on the outside but have deliciously yellow and sweet flesh. These I bough from a man with a bicycle with a big basket strapped to the back. It's amazing how the mangoes remain so neatly arranged in the basket. I don't think the guy ever rides the bike, it can't possible be balanced properly, but they let him take around a fairly big cargo without straining his back too much. I had already eaten a couple of the mangoes before I decided to take this picture. And these two lovely specimens got turned in to lassi which you can read about here! 

Just above the mangoes is a bag of yogurt (dahi) which is really far more liquid and runny than any yogurt you'd get in the west. I've already promised to get a picture of the little dairy shop where I buy it from. The shop keeper makes the yogurt fresh every day and keeps a big bowl and bucket of it in a chest fridge in the store, pouring out 1/2 liter ladles of it into plastic bags when needed. For some reason people here like the yogurt to be pre-sweetened and it's the far more available variety. Not what I like, especially to go with my rice and dall dinner. You can get the sweetened stuff in tubs which is a bit more convenient and the tubs can be returned so is really far more environmentally friendly. Come to think of it, I could just take a tub down to be filled up! I've been putting the yogurt through a muslin cloth to take the whey out. But this time I think I'll make Mango Lassi out of it. 

Potatoes. still got some dirt on them ...and not all neatly packaged in plastic! Instead they are straight out of a sack from a little shop that sells all sorts of veg, rice, lentils and pretty much everything else you'd need for a basic meal here. Think I'll make some mash this week and try and get some sausages from the Nina and Hager Butchers on the other side of the city. While I am loving the food her, I am getting a bit bored of rice and dall every day, and some times twice! Nina and Hager is a butchers that all the foreigners recommend where they prepare and package the meat using German technology. Really, it allows us foreigners to keep our squeamish side and stay away from the raw chopped up carcasses that the regular butchers have on show here. Maybe I should do a comparison picture at some point. 

Ah, then the Tonic Water!! yayayay, the last four cans in the shop. 2 cold enough to drink so I cracked one open for a G&T as soon as I'd taken the picture, and the rest carefully cooling in the fridge! I picked up a bottle of Tanqueray gin on my way through Delhi duty free and am very happy I did. If anyone is coming to visit me, I'm going to have to insist on doing some duty free shopping for me (I now sound like my parents). 

A tub of Amul Cheese Spread! Does anyone else remember this Plastic Cheese? It's actually perfectly good, particularly in a pasta sauce or even just on toast! Back at Woodstock we used to have this in our waiwai instant noodle some times with the addition of a can of tuna. Really I sometimes look back at those dorm cooked meals and wonder what on earth we were thinking!!

I also got a kilo of baby carrots for a guy who had a little stall on the side of the road who only had carrots. He asked 40npr for a kg, but I got them for 30, even that was probably more than they were worth, but really at 22p for a kg of carrots is seriously a good price! How can I possibly argue about that. At some point I do want to think more carefully about these bargaining rituals that I some times go through. Is it really worth driving the price down when what we are talking about is a matter of Pence in UK terms? But at the same time, should I let salesmen/women get away with charging me a much higher price for something just because I'm clearly a foreigner? I had that dilemma recently when buying peaches and the store keeper asked the Nepali woman next to me for 100npr for a KG and then turned to me and asked for 150npr! The problem is that I understand the language so know when I'm being treated as a foreigner, and that just annoys me! In the case of the peaches, I insisted on 100npr! 

Finally a nice loaf of Muesli brown bread and a Walnut Brownie. These were from a bakery down one of the side roads leading away from the Stupa. There are quite a few of these bakeries around that make pretty decent brown bread and even more fancy pastries. The bread was perfect for breakfast with Mum's home made plum jam, and a change from my usual yogurt and mango. The brownie on the other hand, didn't quite hit the spot. Had a distinct artificial flavor to it, too much sugar and certainly not enough good dark chocolate!! 

Oh, not last, last of all is a 200 gram piece of fresh paneer. From the same yogurt man. I had some spinach pure in the fridge so decided to make Palak Paneer for dinner tonight. I cut the paneer into cubes, lightly fried it, added the spinach pure and some spices, salt and pepper, and had it with my rice and dall! 

So there you have it. My Shopping for the day and some little stories along the way. 

More coming soon. 

The Simplest Mango Lassi!

It's mango season here on this side of the world, and they are everywhere! Today I decided to make Lassi! 

It's so simple and all you need is: 

Three Essential Ingredients.

A couple of nice ripe mangoes

A packet of yougurt

and

A blender

Here I walk down the road and buy a packet of yogurt in a plastic bag. The man in the shop ladels in into a bag in 1/2 or 1 ltr portions from a big bowl of freshly made yogurt that's chilling in the freezer. One day I'll put up a picture of my friendly dairy man in his shop. He also sells fresh Paneer which is georgous as well as the slightly more unusual Yak Cheese!! 

 How to make a Lassi

Step 1: Cut up the mango and put it into a blender. I ended up using three smallish very ripe mangos

Step 2: Add in the yogurt. It needs to be fairly runny yougurt, Greek Yogurt will not do (as much as i love it) because it will make it way too think. A plain natural yogurt should do 

Step 3: Blend it up! 

And pour! That's it! 

If you've made too much then pop it in the fridge to let it chill and drink it later. Or, I had the idea that putting it in a tub and freezing it would work quite well too, and make a really nice mango yogurt ice-cream!! I'd do it if I had a freezer I could rely on! 

Other recipes suggest a dash of cardamon which would work too. Would give it that tiny bit of spice and Indian flavour. And if your yogurt is too sour, or mangoes not sweet enough you can always add a spoonful of sugar or honey to make it a bit sweeter. 

But mine was perfect for a Saturday morning! 

A morning walk

Empty Boudha streets 

Things were looking rather uncertain in Kathmandu a couple of weeks ago. There had been a series of bandhs, day after day, and I was beginning to hear about the situation getting a little more unsettled and volatile than usual. I've talked about the bandhs before - when it is enforced, people are not meant to go out, drive their cars, or open up their shops for the day -  generally bicycles were ok and even motorbikes. This time though, I kept hearing that motorbikes and bicycles were not being allowed out and the protesters, or the ones calling the bandh were burning peoples bikes if they did go out. Even the lady who helps out in my flat said she passed two burning motorbikes last Morning on her walk to work.

So, with all this happening, I was beginning to get a bit nervous. I wasn't able to get across the city to my office, and even most of the shops in Boudha were closed so I hadn't been able to buy any food. I decided, I'd head to Mumbai for a few days and wait it out until after the 27th and the constitution was due to made. 

Not a car in sight

I booked my ticket for the next day, easy enough and pretty cheap, but then came the next problem. How was I going to get to the airport in the morning. My flight wasn't till noon, not that made a difference. Taxi's didn't want to drive because there was a possibility they would get damaged, and there isn't exactly any public transport to take. Actually, taxi's would go, but not after 5am in the morning - so I'd have to be up and out by 4 and then have over 6 hours sitting at the airport - not my idea of fun. 

One option that came up was taking the tourism board bus from the Hyatt Regency to the airport - by the timings were unpredictable and there wasn't any guarantee of a seat. So I started asking around about options and the idea came up to walk to the airport! Yes, Walk to the airport, with a porter carrying my luggage, early in the morning. Not something you would ever think about doing in any other country.

At least I didn't have too much luggage

So that's what I did. 6km from Boudha to the Airport, at 8am in the Morning isn't too bad when you don't have much to carry. It was oddly enjoyable and definitely makes for a good story. It was quite impressive having this little Sherpa man carrying my luggage! Going down through Boudha and across the main road was a bit weird. Not a car in sight, a few people walking around, but that was it. This is usually a busy road and at that time in the morning should have been packed with cars, busses and micros taking people and children to work and school. Instead it was rather eerily quiet. We crossed the main road and went down along a back road heading towards Pashupati temple and the airport on the other side. It was nice to see the place waking up. It's amazing what people will do in total public on the side of the road, have a bath, brush their teeth, drink their morning cup of tea. When your house really small, and you share with so many others I guess all sense of personal space and privacy gets lots.

A Nepali riot policeman having an easy time

I walked down behind Pashupati Temple, they didn't let us go through the complex, which might have been faster, without paying the 500rs entrance fee. They clearly didn't want people just using the temple as a through road, and fair enough. Instead, we walked along an unpaved and rather dusty road through a beautiful forest. At that time in the morning the cicada's and the birds were singing and it was still quite cool with the sun just coming up behind us. In front, we saw several other families dragging the bags along, clearly also headed for the airport.

Then, up through the forresty bit, we came alongside Kathamdu's golf course. I had never know it was there before, but there it was, green and lush with people out with their caddies already starting a game. I guess the bandh's didn't really affect them. By now we were nearing our end point, arriving at the airport in style! 

Pretty walk through the woods behind Pashupati

Nicely paved path along the golf course on the final stretch